


Vines

by CrimeAlley1048



Category: Batfamily - Fandom, Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), batfam - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 05:12:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18887860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimeAlley1048/pseuds/CrimeAlley1048
Summary: In the middle of a Poison Ivy attack, Damian makes a new friend.





	Vines

**Author's Note:**

> Batman = Dick

The vine flung Damian through the air and sent him crashing through a nearby window that shattered around him. He landed in a heap on a carpeted floor, pulled himself up again, and began to survey the room, cursing softly as he did so.

Within seconds, something heavy wrapped itself around Damian’s legs. Another vine. Great. Damian pulled a knife from his belt on instinct, before he had time to process that it was not in fact a vine clinging to his legs but a small child.

Damian dropped his knife and cut off his string of swear words. This was unexpected, and he didn’t entirely know how to proceed. The child, a small, chubby girl with curly hair pulled into a puff at the top of her head, looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

Damian kicked a leg lightly in an attempt to disentangle her from his knees. The child would not budge. He kicked a second time.

“I’m… busy,” he told her.

  
Still nothing. Damian reached down, placed his hands below her arms, and pried her off. She let go long enough for him to lift her into the air; then she pulled in close again and wrapped all four of her limbs around Damian’s torso.

Great.

  
“Robin!” Batman yelled from outside the window. “Where are you?”

  
The girl began to sob into Damian’s shoulder. “Occupied!” he yelled back.

  
Damian heard a crash, then saw Grayson go flying by his window, dangling from a giant vine that whipped him into a brick wall. Damian winced: ouch.

  
Batman stood up unsteadily and raised his arms in a what-are-you-doing kind of gesture. Damian looked down at the child again and shrugged expressively. What else was he supposed to do?

  
Grayson threw his hands in the air and ran back into the fight. Damian watched him duck between vines in an attempt to get close to Poison Ivy, who stood in a mess of trailing vines, carnivorous plants, and sprouting trees, all of which lunged at Batman.

  
Well, there was one way Damian could still help. He pulled his grappling gun from his side and took careful aim into the mass of plants. Three… two… one… fire!

  
The grappling line shot through the web of vines and embedded itself into the tree behind Ivy’s head. Instead of activating the grapple function— that would cause extra spikes to dig into the bark and stabilize the line— Damian hit ‘retract’ and pulled backwards as hard as he could.

  
The heavy metal grappling hook hit Ivy straight in the head on its way back to Damian’s hand. She went down long enough for Grayson to leap through the falling vines and onto Ivy’s turf.

  
Batman activated a cloud of knock-out gas, and Ivy slumped back onto the earthen floor. The vines stopped moving. The ones in midair dropped suddenly, while the ones wrapped around various objects went still.

Batman made his way over to Damian, panting lightly. “Nice,” he said.

“Thank you.”

“I see you made a friend.”

“She won’t get off of me.”

Grayson knelt next to Damian to address the girl. “Hi. I’m Batman. What’s your name?”

The little girl sniffed, then whispered, “Ria.”

“Nice to meet you. How old are you, Ria?”

Ria held up two fingers, then quickly wrapped that arm back around Damian’s neck.

“Do you want to get down?”

Ria shook her head no.

“There you go,” said Grayson. “She doesn’t want to get down. Where’d she come from?”

“In here, somewhere.” Damian gestured to the empty room. It looked like a small office with an cracked door leading to another, brighter space. Ria pointed towards it.

“Okay,” said Grayson. He stood up, walked across the room, and pushed the door fully open. “Oh,” he muttered. “That makes things harder.”

The other room was clearly a daycare. It had handprint decorations, tiny tables, an art station, and piles of blocks and stuffed animals. The tables were spread with crayons and coloring pages that showed scribbled-over bat symbols and Robin logos. Grayson smiled at those.

Ria put her hand over the insignia on Damian’s chest.

As far as Damian could tell, there was no one else inside. Ria sniffed again, then began to cry harder.

“It’s okay,” Damian told her, quietly. “We’ll find them.”

Ria buried her head in Damian’s cape. He patted her hair awkwardly, then turned to Grayson.

“Maybe they’re outside?”

“I didn’t see any other kids.” Batman rubbed his chin. “But I wouldn’t have, if the daycare people did their job.”

“If they did their job, they wouldn’t have left a child behind,” Damian observed.

Grayson nodded. They both walked through the broken window and back onto the street.

The street was swarming with cop cars, their blue and red lights flashing. Commissioner Gordon waved from across the way; Grayson waved back while Damian scanned the area for anyone behaving like they were missing a child. Nobody stood out of the crowd slowly gathering around the building.

Ria pulled her head from Damian’s shoulder to scan the crowd too. She didn’t react to anyone in particular.

“Okay,” Damian told her. “Let’s try around the back.”

They circled the building slowly, through groups of onlookers that parted to let Damian pass. He didn’t find them until a good ten minutes later, when he rounded the last wall of the building and saw a line of a dozen children of various sizes, led by two anxious-looking women in purple uniform shirts.

One of them shouted Ria’s name as soon as Damian appeared. They both hurried over and surrounded Damian as Ria continued to cling to his chest.

“Oh thank God,” gasped the first woman. She had tear tracks on her face. “Oh thanks God you found her. We’ve been so worried.”

Damian gave her a look. She deserved to be worried, he thought angrily. She left a two-year-old alone in a building during Ivy’s rampage. What kind of a caretaker was she?

He chose not to say it out loud. “The building isn’t secure,” he told them. “You should call the children’s parents. They need to go home.”

“We already did,” said the second woman. “They’re all on their way… Ria’s dad included. We’ll call again and tell him you found her.”

She pulled out a cell phone and hurried back to the other children. The first woman looked down at the ground for a moment, then held out her arms for Ria to climb into them.

Ria didn’t budge. She buried her head in Damian’s cape again and clung on even more tightly.

“Ria,” said Damian severely, “it’s time to let go.”

Ria did not let go. Damian sighed quietly. “When will her father be here?”

“I don’t know,” said the woman. “Thirty minutes?”

Damian sighed again. He sat down on the nearest curb to wait. Five minutes later, Ria fell asleep in his arms.

Thirty minutes, Damian thought. He supposed he could stay that long.


End file.
